Imperial Civil War
The Imperial Civil War was a long and bloody conflict that was waged across the entirety of Helghast space throughout the latter half of the 25th century Lead-up to War After the abrupt end to the Third Extrasolar War, the Empire had focused on rebuilding and healing the wounds that the conflict tore across the galaxy. For two decades the Empire stands together and rebuilds the galaxy, at home and abroad, determined to shape a bright future for the galaxy. Until Hera Visari died. Her death was sudden and unexpected, and threw the Empire into chaos as her as of then unknown daughter assumed the mantle of Autarch. Maya Visari, while being a skilled fighter who had recieved training from Vikar Detrick during ther youth, was exceptionally young, only 23 years old upon her rise as ruler of the Empire. Her youth distressed most of the ruling elite, who believed her to be unqualified for such a powerful role without proper grooming. Her heritage, strongly implying a human father, further deteriorated her position among the Imperial Cabal as well, most of which rallied behind Salem Brinkman, a ruthless and cruel veteran of the Second Extrasolar War who was determined to return the Empire to the ways of old. Worsening the situation, a new movement sweeps across the people of the Empire, a movement known as The Citizens' Decree. The Decree openly denounces the fascist government of the Empire, and espouses ideals of liberty and total equality across the galaxy, and attracts countless citizens underneath its banner. Another, more extreme faction branches off shortly afterwards, calling itself the ISA Resurgent. created predominantly by humans, the Resurgent makes its desires clear; to see the Helghast subjugated beneath humanity once again. Lastly, the question of the Empires' synth population, which had been steadily growing since before the 2420s, further divided the nation. On the one hand, the younger generation of Imperial citizens had embraced their synthetic countrymen, having grown attached to them after years of hard work and dedication to the Empire. On the other, the current and older generations saw the articifial beings as abhorrent testimonies to human hubris, and an affront to the natural order of the galaxy. Synth rights, suppressed even further than human rights among helghast, were a strong focal point for the Decree, who began to show signs of arming themselves and preparing an armed revolt. Desiring to avoid further bloodshed, and eishing to maintian Imperial unity, Maya chose to pass the Rights of Sentients act, giving equal rights to all beings with genuine self-awareness who resided within the Empire. Unfortunately, Maya had underestimated to effect that Salem had on the Imperial Cabal, who had almost universally been united under his banner. Using the Rights of Sentients as an excuse to display Maya as a weak leader prone to appeasement before the military, he swayed nearly the entirety of the imperial armed forces under his control. Breaking away from the Empire, Salem declared his intent to destroy Maya's institution and establish the ideals that Scolar had made the cornerstone of helghast idealogy generations before. Maya meanwhile had the entirety of the Najenmik force swear loyalty unto death to her, in addition to the Royal Guard who where trained to a level almost equivalant to the former. While immensely powerful in their own right and far deadlier than even a large group of regular soldiers, Maya's army consists of only 450,000 men and women loyal to her, compared to the billion or so troops the military has at it's disposal. In the opening hours of the war, the Najenmik and Royal Guard launch a preemptive assault against Slames' forces across the Core Worlds of Helghan, Vekta and Gyre, leading to massive Militant casualties as they are caught off guard. Once the fighting is noticed, both the Decree and the Resurgent both make moves to establish themselves in the conflict as well, causing the military to temporarily withdrawal from the Empire's capital worlds to avoid excessive casualties, and allow their enemies to fight amongst themselves. Outbreak of War: Fortification of Helghan With the military temporarily out of the picture, the Visari Loyalists make securing the Imperial capital worlds their top priority before the lumbering might of the war machine can be brought down upon them. With both the Resurgent and the Decree bearing down on them, the Loyalists utilise deception and ruthlessness to establish breathing room for themselves. With Helghan being established as the most vital stronghold to defend, the Loyalists withdraw their forces from Vekta, making it just noticeable for the rebelling forces to notice. The Resurgent, eager to reclaim Vekta as an ISA world, largely withdraw their forces to invade the planet, quickly establishing dominion as the Loyalists focus on the homeworld. While Maya attempts to reason with the Decree, they prove too idealistic, determined to see the fascism of their parents permanently wiped away rather than agree to a cease-fire or cooperation against the opposing forces. With little other choice, and time dwindling quickly, the Najenmik unleash a wave of terror across the planet, hunting and slaughtering the Decree rebels and their families. While the factions' leadership succeed in evacuating to regroup with other off-world rebel forces, the entirety of the Decrees' powerbase on Helghan is slaughtered to the last, with families of the rebels following soon after. While the Loyalists and Maya herself are disgusted with this inhuman treatment of the enemy, they have little other options if they wish to establish control of Helghan before Salem's armies return. With Helghan fully under their control, the planets Arc-grid is fully brought online, along with the planetary defense force and the military defense satellite array that surrounds the planet. These defenses, vast and powerful, are strong enough to ward off an invasion even from Helghan's military itself, having been designed to make Helghan impregnable. While the world is under their control, Vekta is conquered by the Resurgent, and Gyre sees the Loyalists and Decree armies fighting heavily. Meanwhile, the war erupts across the colonies en masse, with most swearing fealty to either the decree or the Autarch. The twenty worlds that were annexed during the TEW, meanwhile, declare their loyalty to the Resurgent, shattering Imperial unity across the entire nation. Salem, ever cautious and calculating, decides that the colonies must be brought to heel first and foremost, before the costly invasion of the Core Worlds can take place. As a result, the Helghast military begins to deploy full scale invasion fleets acrossits own territory, plotting to establish full dominion over the nation. Civil War: The Core Worlds Under Salem, the imperial military focuses it's strength on the conquest of the vast colonial empire the helghast have built over the past several decades, leaving the Decree, Remnant and Loyalists to fight amongst themselves across Helghan, Vekta and Gyre. ISA Remnant invades Gyre While the Visari Loyalists strengthen their hold on Helghan, the Remnant consolidate their power over Vekta and move to "liberate" Gyre, wishing to establish their powerbase across the former capital worlds of the ISA. While the refurbished ISA cruisers are woefully under-equipped for combat by modern standards, the Decree fleet is little more than a mass of civilian craft with black market weapons, allowing a decisive fleet battle to hand aero-space domination to Remnant forces. Wishing to achieve rapid success in their invasion, the ISA forces concentrate their army into surgical strikes against the largest cities on Gyre, to capture the bulk of the population and industrial base of the planet. Unfortunately for the invaders, the Decree forces prove incredibly adept at guerrilla warfare, and harass the occupying forces with constant small scale attacks that drain resources and personnel from the Remnant forces. In addition, the handful of Loyalist forces across the world have already evacuated from the cities, linking up their long range comunications back to Helghan to feed intel and recon reports back to the Najenmik stationed off-world. Najenmik Evacuate Synth Population of Core Worlds While the Decree and Remnant fight over Gyre, the Loyalist forces dedicate a sizable portion of their manpower to the safe and efficient evacuation of synthetic civilians across the Matian border, to bring them further away from Salems' forces that scour the Empire for the percieved, "enemies of the race." While many among the Loyalists, including the Autarch herself, have genuine sympathies for the plight of the synth subjects of the Empire, a driving force behing the evacuation is to maintain positive image and secure a stronger tie with their allies in the Sol system. With so many synths needed evacuation, including refugees fleeing from the besieged colonies, the Loyalists are temporarily unable to divert forces to combat the hostile forces across the Core System, thereby leaving them isolated to Helghan for the time being. Civil War: The Colonies Civil War: Outsiders